Search results matching tags 'Productivity' and 'PASS'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=Productivity,PASS&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'Productivity' and 'PASS'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)CIOs: Stop Mandating Traininghttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/merrill_aldrich/archive/2013/11/04/cios-stop-mandating-training.aspxMon, 04 Nov 2013 19:36:03 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:51596merrillaldrich<p>I love to learn about new technology, and I especially love a long deep-dive technical session with a real expert or a well-crafted, inches thick technical book. Even if either one is expensive. Learning is probably my favorite thing to do.</p> <p>Yet I stand before you with an appeal: Stop “sending people to training.”</p> <p>Why would I say such a thing? Because failure is baked right into that very phrase: “sending people to training.”</p> <h2>Death by Training</h2> <p>Most of us in the IT world have probably experienced this scenario:</p> <p>The company has “vouchers” for “training” to be used at some training facility. A group is “sent” there to learn about some technology we ostensibly lack that will help the organization. In the group we have, let’s call him “Joe,” who is relieved to be out of the office with a legitimate excuse not to do any work, because it saves him from the work of not doing any work in the office. There is also “Phil” who has real work to do, but can’t, because he’s been sent to training. His phone is likely to ring a lot in the session, and he may or may not pay attention. Next to Phil is “Pat” who goes to every possible training session with enthusiasm, but as far as anyone can tell has not retained much of any use from those many hours. Undaunted, she is eager to soak up this WhateverTech 2.0 because it really is the future, etc. etc. etc.</p> <p>At the front of the room is a barely-interested instructor who just read up on this subject matter the night before, and will lead us in a death march of alternating PowerPoint slides, interactive exercises and coffee/bio breaks.</p> <p>This is deadly. It’s waste of time for the individuals involved and a waste of money for the company. If there is anyone capable in this episode, it’s even debilitating for them. This will fail, because the people participating aren’t going to provide the outcome you seek. It’s because they are not engaged, or not capable, or both. It’s because the situation is framed by expecting them to sit through training, not expecting them to succeed at their work. It almost guarantees the vouchers and the hours are wasted.</p> <h2>Expect Learning, not Training</h2> <p>What can you do instead? The technology landscape does change rapidly and the people on your team really do need to stay engaged in what is new, to keep your organization efficient and competitive. What you need is a culture of learning, not a culture of training. Consider whether you can incorporate these ideas into your team:</p> <ol> <li>Expect <em>learning</em> instead of expecting <em>training</em>. Create a culture in your team where new skills are valued because there’s a genuine sense that they matter, and reward the people who bring those new skills.</li> <li>Measure the team’s performance and make visible where new skills and tech have made a difference. Someone automated a horrible manual process? Celebrate that. Fixed a reliability issue that plagued operations? Celebrate. Created an HA solution where you needed one? Super. But make sure these gains are real, so the tech staff who know what’s what on the floor don’t become jaded about false praise.</li> <li>Support your team in finding <em>quality</em> learning opportunities they they are excited about. In my field that something like the PASS Summit, or SQL Skills Immersion Events. Fund those, and let people go (notice I didn’t say “send them”). If they aren’t excited about real learning opportunities, then start to wonder about how they are fitting in to this learning culture you need to create.</li> <li>Make learning a legitimate part of your team’s time – “I don’t have time to learn PowerShell” is not something you want to hear, just for example. Then make it an expectation. Then find and reward the results that people produced who stepped up with real commitment.</li> <li>Find the real skills gaps on your team, and proactively locate people to fill them. Look ahead six months or a year and see if you have people to successfully meet the changes coming down the road. Ask your best technical staff where the gaps are.</li> </ol> <p>This might look different in different organizations, and people have different styles. I can read a 1,200 page technical book, if it’s a good one. It takes hours – but the organization benefits from that time as I get better at my job. I realize not everyone wants to read like that. Some people use the web, some like conference attendance or conventional training - but good quality training and not PowerPoint death marches – and still others would like mentoring.</p> <p>No matter the style, it’s up to you to make the structure and create a set of expectations where the people on your team can, and want to, learn and grow. If they are personally committed then the team becomes unstoppable.</p>The Year That Was - 2012http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/12/31/the-year-that-was-2012.aspxMon, 31 Dec 2012 19:31:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:46909KKline<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 was, simply stated, a year that kicked my butt. &nbsp;When I wasn't struggling professionally, I was struggling personally. &nbsp;Health issues, culminating in a diagnosis of Type II diabetes, and the passing of my father soon after Thanksgiving marked my biggest struggles. &nbsp;I apologize to those of you who are normally on my Christmas card list for not sending any this year. The wind was not in my sails. &nbsp;On the positive side of the ledger, I made a scary but exciting leap to&nbsp;<a title="SQL Server and Windows Tools for the IT Professional that Knows Better" href="http://sqlsentry.net/">SQL Sentry</a>&nbsp;midyear. This was a huge shake-up after 10 years with my previous employer, but one which has been met with unbridled enthusiasm everywhere I've gone. &nbsp;Thank you for the handshakes, high-fives, and hugs! &nbsp;We're doing some really exciting things at SQL Sentry (such as&nbsp;<a href="http://sqlperformance.com/">SQLPerformance.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a title="SQL Sentry Plan Explorer and Plan Explorer Pro" href="http://www.sqlsentry.net/plan-explorer/sql-server-query-view.asp">Plan Explorer Pro</a>) and I hope to engage with you more than ever in 2013.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Blogging Activity, Plus Leadership Skills &amp; Professionalism</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 marked a bit of a shift in my content creation direction. &nbsp;I've seen an uptick in struggles in the non-IT part of our career - communications, leadership, motivation, goal-keeping, all of those sort of things. &nbsp;I feel like I have some wisdom to contribute in that space. &nbsp;So, in addition to technical blog posts, I been putting down more of my experiences and lessons learned on the interpersonal side of the IT career path. &nbsp;My top ten blog posts for the year reflect some of that new direction:</p><ul style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/08/13/do-you-have-one-of-the-three-ws-to-sit-on-a-board-of-directors/">Do You Have One of "the Three W’s" to Sit on a Board of Directors?</a>&nbsp; -- Important tips for any IT pro considering a role in strategy and executive leadership.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/09/05/timewarp-what-is-a-relational-database/">Timewarp: What Is a Relational Database?</a>&nbsp;-- With all the talk about NoSQL databases, let's go back to the fundamentals.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/02/22/want-another-reason-to-hate-itunes/">Want Another Reason to Hate iTunes?</a>&nbsp;-- A throw-away article that precipitated a maelstrom of comments. Them Apple fanboys are&nbsp;<em>passionate!</em></li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/03/09/why-do-it-pros-make-awful-managers/">Why Do IT Pros Make Awful Managers?</a>&nbsp;-- Not all IT pros make awful managers, but when they're awful it's often for similar reasons.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/07/26/high-availability-white-papers-and-resources-for-sql-server/">High-Availability White Papers and Resources for SQL Server</a>&nbsp;-- Read the latest about AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and more.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/04/25/new-white-paper-sql-server-extended-events-and-notifications/">New White Paper: SQL Server Extended Events and Notifications</a>&nbsp;-- SQL Server 2012 great augments the Extended Events feature set. Find out how.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/05/03/build-your-own-microsoft-operations-manager-pack/">Build Your Own Microsoft Operations Management Pack</a>&nbsp;-- Resources to build out your own SCOM management pack.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/09/12/help-me-update-the-history-of-sql-server/">Help Me Update the History of SQL Server</a>&nbsp;-- I started with SQL Server when it was still an OS/2 product. Jeesh! Lots of versions have come out since then.</li><li>TIE:&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/06/28/recorded-webcast-available-extend-scom-to-optimize-sql-server-performance-management/">Recorded Webcast Available: Extend SCOM to Optimize SQL Server Performance Management</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/03/19/the-experts-conference-tec-for-ad-sharepoint-exchange-powershell-and-other-admins/">The Expert's Conference (TEC) - For AD, SharePoint, Exchange, PowerShell and Other Admins</a>&nbsp;-- Pointers to a webcast about extending SCOM and the TEC conference.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/07/11/a-fond-farewell-to-quest-software/">A Fond Farewell to Quest Software</a>&nbsp;-- I learned&nbsp;<em>so much</em>&nbsp;in 10 years at Quest Software.</li></ul><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">As I mentioned in the opening paragraph about blogging, I'm putting more energy into best practices for professional growth among IT pros. &nbsp;Along those lines of thought, I started a website called&nbsp;<a href="http://www.foritpros.com/">ForITPros.com</a>&nbsp;with my long-time friend Joe Webb (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/joewebb">Twitter</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.webbtechsolutions.com/blog">Blog</a>) and, in partnership with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sswug.org/">SSWUG</a>, developed a 2-DVD set and streaming media class called&nbsp;<a title="Kevin E. Kline's Leadership Skills for IT Professionals" href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/event/sessions.aspx?id=671">Leadership Skills for IT Professionals</a>&nbsp;containing 14 hours of leadership and soft skills training specifically crafted for IT teams.</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I've also been working with PASS on the Professional Development Virtual Chapter (VC), led by Mark Caldwell (<a href="http://twitter.com/ajarnmark">Twitter</a>). &nbsp;We've already got a full year of content schedule and are trying to figure out how fit in more sessions. &nbsp;Maybe moving to more than one webcast per month? &nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="http://professionaldevelopment.sqlpass.org/Blog/authorid/33179.aspx">PASS Professional Development VC archive</a>&nbsp;has lots of great content for you to review and future sessions are detailed at the&nbsp;<a href="http://professionaldevelopment.sqlpass.org/">PASS Professional Development VC homepage</a>.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">In-Person Activity</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 was busy where I actually appeared in person or put in a big effort to write or create content. &nbsp;Here's a run-down: Articles (2),&nbsp;Conference Spoken (12),&nbsp;Customer Calls (88),&nbsp;Customer Visits (4),&nbsp;Magazine Columns (14) at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sqlmag.com/blogcontent/seriespath/tool-time-blog-16">SQLMag.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dbta.com/Authors/3536-Kevin-Kline.htm">DBTA.com</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/bibliography/">New Books (1) with Ross Mistry</a>, PASS Chapter Presentations (12),&nbsp;Pre-cons/Full-day Seminars (4),&nbsp;<a title="SQL Saturday, presented by the Professional Association for SQL Server" href="http://www.sqlsaturday.com/">SQL Saturdays</a>&nbsp;(4),&nbsp;<a title="SQL Server Worldwide User Group" href="http://www.sswug.org/">SSWUG</a>&nbsp;Sessions (4), TechNet Radio Broadcasts (2), Technical Book Reviews (3), and&nbsp;Webcasts (10).</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">In 2013, I expect to travel a bit less. &nbsp;But I also expect to do many more webcasts. &nbsp;Let me know if you have some ideas about what you'd like to learn! &nbsp;One business trip that I refuse to give up, though, is&nbsp;<a href="http://sqlcruise.com/2013-cruises/">SQLCruise</a>. &nbsp;(Register!) &nbsp;I know it sounds like the&nbsp;<em>worst possible way to learn</em>. I mean who'd want to learn on a cruise ship in the Caribbean?!? &nbsp;(I hope you could detect the sarcasm dripping from those two sentences.) &nbsp;But here are two favorite aspects of of SQLCruise that are totally ferreals - 1) You simultaneously can relax and focus on learning. &nbsp;You are disconnected from the mainland. &nbsp;You don't have to worry about the mobile phone going off. &nbsp;2) You get extended ours in a intimate setting with&nbsp;<em>the top talent in the SQL Server world</em>. &nbsp;It's always a pleasure to attend a conference session from the best in the industry. &nbsp;But you'll get&nbsp;<em>hours&nbsp;</em>of time to talk with these veterans of the industry about your specific problems and situations. &nbsp;It just doesn't get better than that.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Social Media</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">It's hard to believe that only a year ago,&nbsp;2011, was my first year on&nbsp;<a title="Kevin Kline's twitter feed" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Twitter</a>. By years end, here's where my stats had moved: 5,507 tweets (up from 3,452 tweets), 661 following (up from 531), &nbsp;and 3,720 followers (up from 2,656) . &nbsp;I didn't check my social media numbers last year, so I've got no point of comparison. But I'm currently sitting at 2,327 LinkedIn connections and 1,157 Facebook friends. &nbsp;One of my standing policies on Facebook is that I don't "friend" someone who I haven't personally met. &nbsp;That doesn't help detangle the hopeless mess I've created by having only one identify on Facebook, both personal and public. &nbsp;So, on the one hand, I owe all of my longtime friends a big apology for all of the SQL talk and, on the other hand, a big apology to all of my professional friends for not posting&nbsp;<em>enough&nbsp;</em>news and advice while dilute my status updates with personal minutia. Oh well - it is what it is.</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">My blogging activity for 2012 was the lowest it's been in many years, down to 44 entries, down from 77 in 2011 and well into the hundreds in 2010. &nbsp;My answer to that sort of&nbsp;doldrums for 2013 is to get sloppy! And by that, I mean less of a perfectionist and more of a content machine that&nbsp;<em>just cranks it out</em>! &nbsp;Most of you, as my readers, have been very forgiving of a misplaced verb, a missing punctuation, or -heck- a totally malformed sentence that makes no sense at all. &nbsp;So I'm going to try much harder to churn through&nbsp;the 700+ nascent blog posts in my notes folder and get those ideas out there!</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I hope to see you following me on&nbsp;<a title="Kevin Kline's twitter feed" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Twitter</a>&nbsp;soon! Thanks,</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">-Kevin</p>Let's Talk Licensing and Virtualization for SQL Serverhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/12/13/let-s-talk-licensing-and-virtualization-for-sql-server.aspxThu, 13 Dec 2012 19:23:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:46647KKline<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I have two new articles up on&nbsp;<a title="Database Trends &amp; Applications magazine" href="http://www.dbta.com/">Database Trends &amp; Applications magazine</a>. &nbsp;I'd love to get your thoughts and feedback!</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><a href="http://www.dbta.com/Articles/Columns/SQL-Server-Drill-Down/Welcome-to-the-Weird-Wild-World-of-Licensing-86588.aspx"><br></a></p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Welcome to the Weird, Wild World of SQL Server Licensing</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Not long in the past, SQL Server licensing was an easy and straightforward process. You used to take one of a few paths to get your SQL Server licenses. The first and easiest path was to buy your SQL Server license with your hardware. Want to buy a HP Proliant DL380 for a SQL Server application? Why not get your SQL Server Enterprise Edition license with it at the same time? Just pay the hardware vendor for the whole stack, from the bare metal all the way through to the Microsoft OS and SQL Server....</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl00_ctl00_rptArticles_ctl01_IssueName" href="http://www.dbta.com/Newsletters/DBTA-E-Edition">DBTA E-Edition</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp;<a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl00_ctl00_rptArticles_ctl01_ArticleIssue" href="http://www.dbta.com/Newsletters/DBTA-E-Edition/3644-December-2012.htm">December 2012 Issue</a></p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><a href="http://www.dbta.com/Articles/Columns/SQL-Server-Drill-Down/Virtualization-Conquers-the-Database-86186.aspx"><br></a></p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Virtualization Conquers the Database</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I was privileged to deliver a session entitled Managing SQL Server in a Virtual World at the PASS Summit 2012, the largest annual conference for Microsoft SQL Server. It was a packed house, literally at standing-room-only capacity. I delivered the session with my friend David Klee and we were swarmed by attendees after the session wrapped up. With almost 600 people in the room, we conducted one of those informal polls that speakers like to do along the lines of "Raise your hands if …" and the informal findings were very telling. Probably around 90% of the attendees used VMware and SQL Server in some capacity and at least 60% used it in production environments. Another important fact was that only 10% of the attendees were actually able to get information on the performance of the actual VMs themselves. Most had to get all of their information and support from the VM / System administration staff....</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl00_ctl00_rptArticles_ctl03_IssueName" href="http://www.dbta.com/Newsletters/DBTA-E-Edition">DBTA E-Edition</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp;<a id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_ctl00_ctl00_rptArticles_ctl03_ArticleIssue" href="http://www.dbta.com/Newsletters/DBTA-E-Edition/3600-November-E-Edition.htm">November E-Edition Issue</a></p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Follow me on Twitter!</a></p>Do You Have One of &quot;the Three W’s&quot; to Sit on a Board of Directors?http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/08/13/do-you-have-one-of-the-three-w-s-to-sit-on-a-board-of-directors.aspxMon, 13 Aug 2012 17:28:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:44692KKline<p>Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat – I’m not typing “Board of Directors” repeatedly throughout this blog post. It’s just too much typing. BoD will have to do. Live with it.</p><p>Perhaps, you’ve been paying attention to the PASS Twitter feed, read the newsletters, or otherwise stay abreast of happenings within PASS. If you haven’t, here’s a news alert – it’s time for a new round of the <a title="SQLPASS Board of Directors" href="http://www.sqlpass.org/AboutPASS/BoardofDirectors.aspx">PASS leadership</a> cycle. And since <a title="PASS Elections Information" href="http://www.sqlpass.org/Elections.aspx">this is the season of PASS nominations</a>, I thought it’d be an appropriate time to share some of my lessons learned about effective BoDs.</p><p><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-admin/null"><img class="alignright" src="http://www.eweek.com/images/stories/slideshows/ms2008review/ms2008review03.jpg" width="384" height="288"></a>Having spent over a decade sitting on various BoD’s, I can testify that the most effective directors are those that bring at least one of <em>the three W’s </em>to the table. (I learned the three W's from a former executive director of PASS, Jon Lindberg). Note that the three W’s are not characteristics or traits. They are <em>behaviors</em>, that is, observable sets of activities. The keywords in the previous sentence are <em>observable </em>and <em>activities</em>. You might have every intention in the world of doing the three W's. But if other people on the BoD cannot observe that you are performing the actions, they don't exist. The three W behaviors are Wealth, Work, and Wisdom. They’re major behaviors in my leadership ethos, called <em>servant leadership</em>. (I’ll talk about servant leadership in another post at some time).</p><p>Let’s talk about the three W’s in detail:</p><h2><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Wealth</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:30px;">This is simple and direct. Some directors come to the boardroom with a checkbook and they’re willing to use it to further the goals of the organization. Because they fund strategic initiatives of the organization in cash or in-kind, they literally change the reality for the organization. Directors with this W remove barriers and constraints that would otherwise end many discussions and initiatives before they got off the ground due to lack of resources.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">However, directors with wealth are usually their as a part of their job. In other words, their employer has a strategic reason for supporting the success of the organization. Therefore, directors with wealth often seek to ensure that the organization is tracking against certain high-level goals that coincide with the goals of their employer. This is not to say that such directors have ulterior motives. They are typically very ethical and insightful members of a given BoD. But this perspective also means that a director with wealth may be interested in activities or metrics which other directors have considered. After all, if you were to pony up big dollars for a new initiative on your child’s soccer team (say, new training equipment) you’d also want to ensure that money was spent to greatest effect.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">Note that wealth doesn’t always mean cash. It can mean many other things - your presence is a form of value. (Many times, directors come to BoD meetings and proceed to work on their email. That's a major breach of sharing your wealth of knowledge). Here’s a more concrete example. Back in the early 2000’s, around 2003, PASS received a significant amount of <em>in-kind </em>support from Compaq Corporation at the encouragement of then Microsoft liaison and board member Ryan Trout. (In-kind support, by the way, is support that has a cash value, but is an action or activity offered instead of actual cash). In effect, Compaq conducted a major direct mail campaign to their sizeable SQL Server user base to help drive attendance at the PASS Summit and to encourage interest in both the international organization and local user groups. This contribution marked a major turning point for PASS both in terms of high-level vendor support and in visibility to the SQL Server user community.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;"> <em>Axiom</em><em>: The golden rule, for directors with wealth, is “he who has the gold makes the rules” with all the positive and negative connotations that holds</em><strong><em>.</em></strong></p><h2><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Work</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:30px;">There’s no getting around the fact that the directors who are most willing to invest personal time and energy are the most effective. (And I mean the term “effective” in the most literal sense of “having a measurable effect on the enterprise”). In a typical strategically-oriented board, the extent of work is usually to remain current on all important reading material, to strive to be aware of shareholder issues and concerns, and to formulate opinions on important strategies for the organization to consider or implement as a form of guidance for the CEO and COO.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">In a portfolio-oriented board, such as the structure used by PASS and many other large IT professional associations (including most of the other major database BoD’s such as <a title="The Independent Oracle User Group" href="http://www.ioug.org/">IOUG</a>, <a title="The International DB2 User Group" href="http://idug.org/">IDUG</a>, ISUG, ITUG, and <a title="IBM's International User Group" href="http://share.org/">Share</a>), directors not only have the burden of the strategic director, but also act as the head of a specific function of the organization. For example, in a portfolio-oriented BoD, a single director might be responsible for growing and guiding the local chapters of the association (the Chapter Portfolio), another might be responsible for driving value back to members (the Membership Portfolio), a third might be responsible for the selection and implementation of the content delivered at major events (the Program Portfolio), and so on. There is no doubt that some directors are much more effective than others at managing a portfolio and leading a group of volunteers within that portfolio.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">While a full discussion of the best practices that make some directors really effective at this second W could fill a couple additional posts, I’ll put a few quick hallmarks here in case you’re curious:</p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Priorities</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Smart directors set their sights on a very short list of <a title="SMART Criteria For Goals" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria">goals that follow the SMART standard</a>. And by “short list”, I mean a list with no more than three goals. The goals are achievable and, usually, not terribly expensive nor complex to implement. If one of their top goals turns out to be much more expensive or complex to get rolling, then they move on to their next most important goal that is easily achievable.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> <em>Axiom: It is better to make small, measurable gains than to set big goals that never get accomplished.</em></p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Alignment</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Smart directors make sure that the goals they’re working to achieve complement the overall strategy of the organization. This alignment provides a strong incentive for other members of the BoD to back their proposals and to act as allies in the event that a board vote is needed to settle the way resources will be directed or whether a proposed goal is accepted by the board as a new policy or program. Alignment of goals with the top-level strategy of the organization also means that successor directors will have a much easier time continuing where the original board member left off because the work simply makes sense. Plus, when a director’s goals seem unusual or very different than other goals of the organization, organizational resistance is sure to come in to play.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"><em>Axiom</em>: <em>Unless there’s an emergency, it is better to couch visionary change within the overall strategy of the organization than it is to introduce changes that represent a major shift in long-standing culture, priorities, or processes.</em></p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Focus</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Directors who have a short list of goals are also much more successful when they devote their energies to …, oh wait a sec, gotta check email. Just kidding. But I hope you get the idea.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">I’ve seen a lot of brilliant individual directors who, upon prioritizing their work, spent enormous amounts of time and energy working on other people’s problems, working on their own issues at the wrong level, or talking about an issue way after its major parameters have been decided. I’m not saying stop helping others or stop discussions. But I am saying that a portfolio director must remember that the success of their team is <em>their</em> success. Many IT professionals are used to being individual contributors and so they feel that if they’re busy and working hard, it must be good, right? <em><strong>No</strong></em>. If the director isn’t working to achieve the goals of <em>their</em> portfolio, they’re basically not working at all. Here are some common traps that damage focus:</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">A common way IT pros on a BoD lose their focus is to <em>get into the details</em> of a new program or process. For example, say that PASS wanted to introduce a cool new feature on their website. An unfocused director would immediately begin to start designing the system in their mind – “We’ll use Active Directory to authenticate new users and then they’ll connect to the services using that cool REST-ful technology I’ve wanted to try. And maybe we could use SSIS packages to…” You get the picture. The BoD hasn't even fully fleshed out the business plan for the new program and yet this director is off and running after the specific technological solution to the problem. The problem that is not yet fully mapped out and understood. Remember, directors are supposed to assess and manage the business value of any given process or new organization program, not sling code. By focusing on the intimate details of the technology first, the director short-changes the business value of the initiative. It's like the programmer who starts writing code before any requirements are understood or documented. I’ve seen directors invest huge amounts of time into initiative which, in the broad analysis, were only half-baked and not worth pursuing. The focus must for a director, first and foremost, be about business value. (As a side-bar to this line of thought, many directors are the only person who can make certain important decisions. If that person is encumbered with relatively routine but demanding work, they actually shortchange the organization of their true value. If the VP of Finance is spending a lot of time working on a technology problem, they're not just working on technology - they're also NOT WORKING on financial matters).</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> Another common mistake that IT pros make when managing a portfolio is failing at delegation. IT pros, as I mentioned earlier, are usually most successful when they’re a strong individual contributor. They’re used to being judged on their own technical skill. They’re not used to being judged on the success of a team. Consequently, inexperienced directors frequently under-delegate and/or under-communicate which leaves volunteers feeling unwanted and unimportant. In the same vein, directors may act rudely to their committee members or other volunteers, or may simply treat them like employees –definitely not the way to treat a volunteer. This behavior is like torching your own support network. Volunteers can quickly become demoralized, or even quit, when they feel unproductive or unwanted.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> <em>Axiom</em>: <em>As a smart director of a portfolio, it is better to focus on business outcomes and the success of the team than it is to perform the detailed work yourself.</em></p><h2> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Wisdom</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:60px;">Dictionary.com tells me that wisdom is “<em>knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action</em>”. Money cannot buy wisdom. It can only be earned through many years of manifold experiences. Some young people are wise and insightful, but frankly it’s usually the grey-headed types who’ve usually lived through enough dumb decisions to recognize when a pattern in a social situation or set of human behaviors is being repeated. A great example of wisdom on the PASS board comes from the two CA representatives who sit on the board, Neil Buchwalter and Rick Bolesta. In addition to serving on the PASS board for perhaps longer than any other sitting board member, they’ve also both sat on other boards before and concurrently with the PASS board. Their stability, deep history, and analysis of the interplay between people (or groups of people) are extremely important to the successful workings of the board.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">You might thing, based on what I’ve said described about wisdom, that a wise director is prone to pontificate and engage in long-winded discourse. Nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. The typical wise director tends to be brief, interjecting comments and thoughts of great weight and importance. What they say is usually worth careful consideration. Conversely, directors who spend a lot of time talking are often the least worth listening to. Many long-winded directors often use discussion to figure out what it is they really think about a given situation. Wise directors already know what they think and, when the speak, produce fully formed thoughts and arguments in a given situation.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">In some cases, a BoD can help build institutional wisdom through diversity. As I mentioned earlier, wisdom is earned through experiences (usually <em>bad </em>experiences). When the members of a governing body like a BoD are young and/or inexperienced, they can supplement their breadth of experiences by selecting members of a variety of background, ethnicities, nationalities, ideologies, orientation, etc. This broaden of perspective raises the quality of dialog, helps identify problems and issues in policy discussion, and helps to foresee major obstacles on the horizon.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"><em>Axiom</em>: <em>Wisdom and insight are crucial in building a base of institutional knowledge, context for key decisions, and insight into the highest-probability for success in socially complex situations.</em></p><p>If you’re involved in a governing body of some kind or are considering volunteering with PASS (or any other BoD for a professional association), do a little introspection. Do you possess one or more of the three W’s? Or do you have big dreams or a burning ember of ambition? What do you need to learn to equip yourself with one of the W’s?</p><p>Let me know what you think!</p><p>-Kevin</p>